10
Irish Arts Review The Landscape Paintings at Fota Author(s): Richard Wood and Richard Woods Source: Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 47-55 Published by: Irish Arts Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491688 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 17:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review (1984-1987). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Landscape Paintings at Fota

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Irish Arts Review

The Landscape Paintings at FotaAuthor(s): Richard Wood and Richard WoodsSource: Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 47-55Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491688 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 17:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Irish Arts Review(1984-1987).

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS AT FOTA

*%*

View of Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow.

Richard Wood writes here about his unique collection

of Irish landscape painting which he has made available to the public

in the splendid setting of Fota House, Co. Cork.

F

ota House, the centrepiece of the

great ornamental estate which covers

Fota Island in Cork Harbour, now houses a collection of Irish landscape paintings from the 18 th and 19th cen turies hung in their natural setting, a

house rather than a gallery. The house

itself, a masterpiece of the celebrated architect Sir Richard Morrison, dating from the 1820s, has been fully and

authentically furnished with period curtains, wallpapers and carpets, and

handsome examples of Irish Georgian and Regency furniture.

Within this setting the landscape paintings have been hung in the

categories into which they fall: idealised,

topographical, and romantic, followed

by Victorian subject painting, and they are interspersed with some portraits.

They are introduced by a group of Flemish 17 th century works, and a land

scape painted in Italy by Richard Wilson, which represents the influence that Italy had on Irish painting. The art of both

Italy and the Low Countries was the

major influence on Irish landscape painting of the 18th and early 19th

centuries, although of course, Wilson was a contemporary of Ireland's earliest

landscapists. The foundation of the Dublin

Society's School for Drawing and Design in the 1740's encouraged the radical

change in the style of picture being produced in this Country. Until then

landscape painting had largely been concerned with map-like representations

of great houses and their grounds. Such views can be seen at Mount levers, Co.

Clare, and Stradbally Hall, Co. Laois, and the one of Carton, Co. Kildare, recently removed from there is familiar to many. While some are more sophisti

cated than others, mainly they are fasci

nating records of buildings now altered or gone, and of parks which have almost all been obliterated. Their simplicity and

naivety are delightful. One such picture hangs in the Ante

Room to the Fota Drawing-Room among the Flemish works, and forms

part of the background material against which the more developed pictures can

be viewed. It shows part of the Powers court Estate in Co. Wicklow, and its

simple composition, high perspective and precise detail testify to its origins,

-47

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS AT FOTA

Idealized landscape - Thomas Roberts (1748-1778).

the map-landscape. The elaborate frame

and subject-matter both suggest that Lord Powerscourt was proud of the way he looked after his property and wished to draw the attention of his visitors to it;

he was a good landowner and wanted

that to be known.

Quite different are the pictures in the

Drawing-Room which contains the ideal

ised landscapes. These seem to owe their

stylistic origin to the Dublin School, if the early Barretts still hanging in the

Royal Dublin Society are anything to go by. Quite naturally the masters of the

School looked to the most sophisticated and prestigious source to provide

models for their pupils. The collections of the country's leading families, which would have been available to those who were interested, were rich in Flemish

works, and this influence seems to have

been absorbed, but what could be better than the great Italian views of Poussin

and Claude? It was these, initially at

least, which provided the major inspira tion for the teachers and pupils of the

Dublin School.

Gone, however, are the mythological

figures, to be replaced by humbler folk

engaged in simple chores such as herding animals, washing clothes, or in common

pastimes such as hunting and bathing. This Flemish delight in the common

place contrasts with the splendours of

the landscapes portrayed, with sunsets -

the sun always hidden, waterfalls, exten

sive vistas, classical buildings and, only

very occasionally, an Irish abbey -

always in ruins, a round tower or, as in one

example here, a tower house. The actual

landscapes are often Italianate, the

Roman Campagna making an appear

anee on Irish canvasses complete with

cypress trees and stone pines, as in

Robert Carver's fine work at Fota. This was to demonstrate the patron's familiar

ity with the Classical world as, so often, did his house, Fota being a prime example. No matter that Carver had

never set foot in Italy- his Italian scenes looked authentic and were popular,

while his scene-painting at Drury Lane

commonly met with applause. Thomas Roberts, however, while

creating an ideal world, was inspired by the landscape of Ireland, which he knew and loved so well. His compositions however complicated they might be, are

effortlessly handled; every square inch of the canvas is painted with an exquisite touch. The fresh greeness, and above all,

the soft feathery leaves of Roberts' ash trees, gilded by the evening sun, are his

-48

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS AT FOTA

m (?if.

Cloughoughter, Co. Cavan? William Ashford (d.1824).

hallmarks and create a vision of An Irish Garden of Eden. One of Roberts'

greatest works of this sort is given pride of place in the Drawing-Room at Fota.

In the Library the pictures display a

very different vision. Here there is no

wistful yearning for an ideal, no display of aristocratic education; the pictures

look at the actual world, taking delight and interest in its grandeur, the curios

ities of the past, and the creations of the

present The great natural features of the Irish coast, the Wicklow mountains, and the Lakes of Killarney are recorded faith

fully and in exact detail, the scenes

enlivened by people and animals as

cunningly as in a Canaletto.

Two views of Coolmore, a once hand

some house near Carrigaline, County

Cork, built in 1788 for the Newenham

family, display the pride and self

confidence of this period. The house

appears in a pool of light as the principal feature in an extensive park which has been laid out around it, the young trees

flourishing. Nature has been tamed by the hand of man, and the scene shows a

haven of civilization and good taste. This contrasts with the surrounding wild hills and the rude, craggy ruins of Carrigaline

Castle seen in the distance, here merely an interesting reminder of the violence

and gloom of the medieval past A deeper interest in this past is

apparent in William Ashford's great

painting of Cloghoughter Castle, which stands on an island in Upper Lough Erne, Co. Cavan. Ashford is one of many

Englishmen who came to Ireland, fell in love with the country, as his magnificent Irish views amply demonstrate, and

stayed. In his Cloghoughter picture

Ashford painted a detailed view of the

imposing ruin by the island's shore, and

charmingly included a small party which has just arrived in two boats; they look around with evident interest and delight,

while their footmen bring ashore the

picnic hampers. This painting expresses so clearly the age of enlightenment, the

age of reason in Ireland.

In the Dining-Room among the

portraits, can be seen the next group of

landscapes, and these display a reaction

to those in the Library. Self-confidence seems to have faltered, man is no longer

in charge; the scenes are wild and un

tameable, the land is uncultivated, and

buildings either do not exist, or are being invaded and ruined, as in Mulcahy's classical capriccio, where civilization

appears as a vision viewed indistinctly

through the gloom of an encircling forest

-49

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

3

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

k1^^M?:

V'tf?

4PC, Wn:

$S$

?#1

WiC.;^;" '

'if- .' ?/ v.

.... , :?*.-' * .;

:^l :^ Tfefc? '*-:

#$$$.% w <*in *.' *?*'

re v

-?Vsjj^

S.?.5*!*^

^t

A view of the Dargle, Co. Wicklow. James Arthur O'Connor (c.l 792-1841).

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly. George P?trie (1790-1866).

Landscape with Temple. Jeremiah Hodges Mulcahy (d.1889).

-52

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS AT FOTA

Wildness, remoteness, loneliness, are

combined with awesome grandeur in

James Arthur O'Connor's mountainous

landscapes, inspired by the dark glens of Co. Wicklow. The threat of violence in

the weather in O'Connor's large canvas

is fulfilled in Francis Danby's seascape across the room. The Danby radiates an

eerie calm; the battered hulk of a ship is

grounded near the shore following a

storm, while a few miserable survivors

cling to the wreckage and watch the sun

setting across the tranquil sea to add,

with calculated venom, darkness to their distress.

The majesty of the Kerry mountains and the storms lashing the Western coast

provided plenty of inspiration for these Romantic painters, restless, adventurous

children of the Age of Byron. Before moving on to the Victorian

subject-painting, the visitor to Fota is shown the Watercolour Room, a

delightful little sitting-room, painted sunshine yellow.

Centrally placed among a bank of

pictures above a plain Irish eighteenth century side-table is Benson's perspective

of his design for Cork's railway station. The stately regularity of the colonnade, terminated by arched and pedimented pavilions and centred with a break-front, is reminiscent in style and character of

Sir Edward Lovett Pearce's Parliament House in Dublin.

The Cork painter Nathaniel Grogan is

represented at Fota by a view of Blarney Castle, here completely intact Seat of the Chief of the McCarthy Clan of

Muskerry, the Castle is seen beneath the central arch of a ruined classical bridge, now, alas, demolished without trace.

The bridge used to carry the main avenue over land which occasionally flooded, but here it spans nothing but

green grass; architecturally it is a play on curves with a central oval, upright ovals

carved on the flanking pillars, and semi circular arches beyond. The bridge must

have been a most attractive feature when

viewed from the Castle's windows. At the base of one of the pillars of the

bridge is a group of local people; two are

dancing a jig to the music of the uileann

pipes. What a mixture of Classical and Celtic Ireland!

A watercolour, painted in 1826,

equally evocative of the history of the land is Petrie's view of Clonmacnoise; this ancient seat of Celtic learning and

religious ritual fell into decay after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and

expelled the monks. Despite the ruinous state of the Cathedral, Norman Castle and Round Tower (only the great High

Cross remains intact), the people of Ireland returned for centuries. In P?trie's

watercolour they seem to emerge from

the very graves, to continue their devo

tions, performing a pattern about the

sacred site. One woman stands on a

mound, silhouetted against the sky, her shawl flapping about her, like a keener at a funeral. The sun, sinking beneath the horizon beyond the river Shannon seems to symbolise the slow, agonising death of

Celtic Ireland.

Upstairs in the bedrooms the visitor comes to the Victorian subject paintings. Interest in pure landscape was at least

rivalled, if not absolutely vanquished, by the narrative picture which displayed and recorded simple customs or great events. Such a picture is Nicholas

Crowley's Guy Fawkes Eve which shows a group of children in a barn converted from a ruined abbey, dressing a straw

Guy, their eyes shining with delight and

anticipation.

Daniel Maclise, the Cork painter who was commissioned to decorate the

Palace of Westminster, is represented at

Fota by a hawking scene, colourful and

freshly painted. The hawkers are dressed in whimsical, pseudo-medieval costumes,

the sartorial equivalent of the pseudo medieval castles which were then so

fashionable. Their sport was medieval

too, though anything but pseudo. Finally, the drama of life and death at

sea is captured in two scenes, one by

Richard Beechey, naval officer who also was a splendid artist. His picture shows the ship of which he was Captain, being savaged by a storm in the Bay of Bengal.

The masts have snapped, the debris on

the deck is being swept over the side, and with it in the water is the body of an

unfortunate horse. The boiling frenzy of the wind and sea is captured with admirable economy by the future Vice

Admiral. The story goes that he and his crew were rescued, presumably when the

storm had died down, by a ship captain ed by a County Waterford man. Beechey painted this picture and presented it to

the Irish captain, in whose family it remained until recently.

Edwin Hayes was the best native Irish marine artist of the nineteenth century;

the splendid canvas of his at Fota is considered to be his greatest. A dramatic

sweep of clouds leads the eye to a tall man-o'-war which tilts on the swell in

the middle distance; in the foreground a

long-boat is tossed on the choppy waves,

its oars leading the eye into the picture. The sailors in the boat wear expressions of horror as they see the body of their

comrade, who has fallen overboard,

floating on the water only a few feet away from a life-belt which might have saved him. The narrative is brilliantly brought alive in these dramatic paintings.

The landscape collection in the house is fittingly completed by a group of water

colours which are seen in a corridor as

visitors leave the last room on their tour.

These are by Mildred Butler, trje distinguished Kilkenny lady who was the first female artist to have had a work pur chased by the T?te Gallery. She painted hundreds of works showing views of her

house, Kilmurray, its garden, farm, live stock and wildlife; they are filled with the atmosphere of a contented, undis

turbed, and beautiful way of life. A

painter of the open air, like her more

illustrious colleagues her obvious

pleasure in the painterly aspect of her

pictures anticipates the modern

movement; some of her works could be

confused with those of Osborne. Mildred Butler's animal and bird studies are acutely and lovingly observed; she

captured their characteristics of shape and movement, and suggested a glimpse of animal thought with an accuracy and

economy which is quite brilliant Equally Mildred Butler could convey the

atmosphere of a heavy summer after

noon with grey skies ? one can almost

hear the flies and insects buzzing angrily at the humidity, anticipating thunder, or the coolness of a distant wood seen across a field parched with the heat

No other painter captures so well the feel of that Anglo-Irish way of life, gracious, peaceful, close to nature; yet

the lack of human figures in the pictures indicates a certain isolation, remote

ness, introspection, and the yearning to

capture the spirit of the moment perhaps suggests a feeling that its passing might be permanent

Richard Wood

John Searle photographed the

paintings at Fota for IRISH ARTS REVIEW.

-53

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

>?r

i-h *&$ >.

<i <

T * :'^%&

..V

Ni*

^ -/* ot?

y-mm

Wmm. ?t*<'ai

Coolmore, Co. Cork. Irish School

Italian landscape. Robert Carver (fL 1750-1791).

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

s';

i H \ ^ ?%*

W l* mi a %

!&

% ')C% *'?M

*n?i

?ki

m!?.

*#.$ '

S&. ^ .^^v

?**' fe

**&&

r.i?fc>.??ri9K. =5^?

The Dry Bridge at Blarney Castle. Nathaniel Grogan (ell40-1801).

*ft?*>

3f

*?A.;*?* ,?HtlK*?t#v'

.# : :-^>^

,f.

A^?:. > ?*: ^a&

:-<?

i*3$

i>. ??*

Summer Garden. Mildred Anne Butler (1858-1941).

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:22:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions